|
But since Thence come the beauty and light in all, it is
Thence that Intellectual-Principle took the brilliance of the
Intellectual Energy which flashed Nature into being; Thence soul
took power towards life, in virtue of that fuller life streaming
into it. Intellectual-Principle was raised thus to that Supreme
and remains with it, happy in that presence. Soul too, that soul
which as possessing knowledge and vision was capable, clung to
what it saw; and as its vision so its rapture; it saw and was
stricken; but having in itself something of that principle it
felt its kinship and was moved to longing like those stirred by
the image of the beloved to desire of the veritable presence.
Lovers here mould themselves to the beloved; they seek to
increase their attraction of person and their likeness of mind;
they are unwilling to fall short in moral quality or in other
graces lest they be distasteful to those possessing such merit-
and only among such can true love be. In the same way the soul
loves the Supreme Good, from its very beginnings stirred by it to
love. The soul which has never strayed from this love waits for
no reminding from the beauty of our world: holding that love-
perhaps unawares- it is ever in quest, and, in its longing to be
borne Thither, passes over what is lovely here and with one
glance at the beauty of the universe dismisses all; for it sees
that all is put together of flesh and Matter, befouled by its
housing, made fragmentary by corporal extension, not the
Authentic Beauty which could never venture into the mud of body
to be soiled, annulled.
By only noting the flux of things it knows at once that from
elsewhere comes the beauty that floats upon them and so it is
urged Thither, passionate in pursuit of what it loves: never-
unless someone robs it of that love- never giving up till it
attain.
There indeed all it saw was beautiful and veritable; it grew in
strength by being thus filled with the life of the True; itself
becoming veritable Being and attaining veritable knowledge, it
enters by that neighbouring into conscious possession of what it
has long been seeking.
|
|